


Bait

by the_obiwan_for_me



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebellion Era - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Crack Treated Seriously, F/M, Headcanon, Mandalore in the Empire Era, Mentioned Satine Kryze, Planet Mandalore (Star Wars), Post-Siege of Mandalore (Star Wars), Why Bo-Katan seems ageless
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-20
Packaged: 2021-03-24 15:41:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30074499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_obiwan_for_me/pseuds/the_obiwan_for_me
Summary: Mandalore is lost, and along with it, Bo-Katan Kryze and Fenn Rau.OR, how a silly crack headcanon on why Bo-Katan seems to never age turned into a serious and angsty fic.
Relationships: Bo-Katan Kryze/Fenn Rau, Korkie Kryze/Lagos
Comments: 11
Kudos: 34





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you all enjoy this little fic that has been rolling around in my head for months! I will share how what started as plain silliness on the Obitine Discord morphed into what I hope will be a believable story at the end of the last chapter!
> 
> Come find me on tumblr! @the-obiwan-for-me

" _Harr'chak!"_ Bo-Katan Kryze shouted, her voice nearly drowned out over the sound of blaster fire and laser cannons. She turned her helmeted head for a moment, and Fenn Rau didn't need to see her eyes to feel them boring into him. He could feel her desperation without seeing it.

They were trapped. 

They had lost.

The moment passed and her eyes were forward again, picking off clones- no. _Stormtroopers,_ two at a time with her twin blasters. But it wasn't much use. For every two she took down, for every two or four or ten their small little knot of warriors wiped off the planet, another wave followed.

They had lost Mandalore. It just hadn't settled into their hearts and minds yet. Fenn refused to be the one to speak the words. Someone else would have to say it. Bo-Katan would have to say it. And, he was afraid, she'd rather die than admit she lost what she swore she'd keep safe in the name of her sister.

There was a sudden lull on the Imps side, all of the Stormtroopers undercover and out of range, and Fenn's stomach turned to even consider what disastrous weapon they were hauling out. 

Bo-Katan signaled to their party, and they all dropped below their own cover- some chunk of durasteel plating from the fractured dome above, blown inward to Sundari's center from the Empire's bombardment. 

"Axe, Fenn, I'm going to provide a distraction, while you two get Korkie and Lagos out of here," the woman said. "Get to the ships, make a run for the blockade."

Korkie Kryze, Bo-Katan's young, strapping nephew, ripped off his helmet in anger, his sweaty, auburn hair, tipped in sunshine gold from a bleach job growing out, flopping down in his eyes. He brushed it roughly back against his forehead, and glared at his aunt. 

"There is no karking way I am leaving, Bo," the young man growled. "This is my home, too."

Bo-Katan yanked her helmet off, green eyes meeting blue. The family resemblance was clear. "You will follow my orders and go, Korkie."

"I am an _adult,_ and you are _not_ my mother."

Bo-Katan jerked back as if she'd been slapped, but she would not be swayed. "I am painfully aware that I am not your mother, but you are all I have left. _Go,_ Korkie. Find Ahsoka. She'll know what to do."

The muscles in Korkie's jaw flexed, and he flashed his eyes to Fenn, looking for support or guidance. Fenn could give him neither. There was no arguing with a Kryze woman. He'd learned that years earlier, when still watching over both sisters before their whole world had been shattered by the death of their father. One did not argue with a Kryze girl. One worked with a Kryze girl.

The boy finally nodded once, sharp and crisp. "Fine." 

"Good. Now, Fenn, when I give the signal-"

"Axe will have to lead their escape, Lady Bo-Katan. I am staying with you," Fenn said.

Bo-Katan turned the full inferno of her blazing eyes to him. He liked it better when she glared at him from behind the visor of her helmet. At least it didn't feel like she was igniting his very soul with her wrath. 

"Like hell you are," she growled.

"I am a Protector, in case you have forgotten. My sworn duty is to protect the one who rules Mandalore. And that, Lady Bo-Katan, is you."

"I rather you protect Korkie. He's the one worth protecting."

Fenn took a steadying breath, stealing himself for the rage that would follow what he was about to say. "I am kriffing tired of your self effacing and self sacrificing mentality." He jabbed a finger into her chest plate, hard enough she rocked back on her heels where she squatted. Korkie steadied her with a hand on her shoulder. "You are the recognized leader of Mandalore. You are the head of the ruling house of Mandalore. My job is to keep _you-"_ another hard jab at her chest- "alive. Now, knock it off, and tell us the fucking plan before those boys across the way get done with setting up their toys." 

No one moved a muscle. The whole group went so still, Fenn could hear the comm chatter from the Stormtroopers. Bo-Katan blinked at him, her face unreadable. He hated when he couldn't read her. She was usually easy to read, wearing her emotions loudly and proudly on her sleeve, like another piece of _beskar'gam_. But when she was like this, he didn't know what to brace for. She could tackle him and snap his neck in fury (he had, in fact, witnessed her do just that to a low level Imperial officer who had once wrongly thought he'd captured the two of them). Or she could break down into her rare but violent grief fueled self loathing. A dark, loathsome mood that was near impossible to shake before it ran its course.

She did neither.

"Fine," she snarled.

The word had barely crossed her lips when the air around them crackled back to life and a mortar landed just meters away.

Fenn jumped and covered Bo-Katan, pushing her to the ground, covering her bare head. In his peripheral vision, he was aware of Axe doing the same to Korkie and Lagos. He felt the shrapnel and debris ping off of his armor as the mortar attack continued to rain down upon them.

“We have to go,” Bo-Katan shouted to Fenn over the relentless noise. “I want the kids out of here, now!”

Fenn growled in frustration, looked up carefully, then tapped Bo-Katan on the shoulder, pointing toward the west. “Keep low, put your kriffing bucket back on, and wait for me there.”

She nodded, then turned to Axe and his charges. “Head south, keep your heads down, move fast, get in the under city if you can. The Stormtroopers haven’t made it that far just yet. That should get you out and to a ship. Pick up anyone you find on the way.” 

Axe nodded solemnly. “Yes, Lady Bo-Katan.” 

He gestured for Korkie and Lagos to move, but Bo-Katan grabbed Korkie by the wrist, tugging him to her. She cradled his cheeks between her hands and pulled his head to hers, resting her forehead to his. “Go, be safe. Find Ahsoka. You know what to tell her when you find her.”

Korkie closed his eyes, breathing deep, then nodded. “I do, Auntie. I will tell her.”

Bo-Katan nodded, letting him go reluctantly. “ _Jate, ad’ika._ Now, go.” She turned to Axe. “I will kill you if anything happens to him.”

Axe chuckled. “I believe you, Lady Bo-Katan.” He gestured toward the south. “Let’s move.”

Korkie squeezed Bo-Katan’s hand one last time, then headed to the south of the city, Lagos on his heels, Axe bringing up the rear. The mortars still fell, though Korkie’s unnatural gut instinct seemed to guide them along a safe path. Fenn tugged at Bo-Katan to move, but she sat for a long moment, her back pressed against the slab of durasteel, and watched her nephew disappear into the battered city.

“Lady Bo-Katan, we _must_ move.”

She nodded, her eyes sad and resigned, pushed her helmet on, and headed west, toward the bombed out building Fenn had pointed out. He followed with a resigned sigh, as their world burned around them.

To Fenn’s surprise, they made it a fair distance through the bowels of various bombed out buildings. But an hour after parting ways from Korkie, Lagos, and Axe, they were hemmed in again. It was a standoff- he and Bo-Katan picked off any Imperial that got close to the building, but they only had one way out. Right into the hands of the enemy. 

They sat together, shoulders brushing, and waited. For what, Fenn wasn’t sure, and he was certain Bo-Katan didn’t know either. But still, they waited.

Bo-Katan produced a flask, took a long swig, then passed it to Fenn. He followed her example, hissing at the rough burn of the _tihaar._ She chuckled dryly, then drank again when he passed it back.

“Do you think they made it?” she asked.

He took the flask again. “I do. The kid’s tough. All you Kryzes are.”

A tiny smile ticked up her lips at that. “True. And his father was nearly indestructible.”

“Are you ever going to tell me who his father was?”

She shook her head. “Nope.”

He grunted, but didn’t press. He’d figured out early on, once he’d come back to Mandalore at the end of the Clone Wars, that Bo-Katan was ruthlessly protective of her nephew and his parentage. The fact that she had let him go off without her spoke volumes at just how desperate she considered their situation.

He changed the subject. “Bo, you do know why I stayed with you, don’t you?”

Her lip curled in a sneer. “Because your sworn purpose is to protect the ruler of Mandalore.”

“No.”

She whipped her head around to look at him. “What do you mean _no?”_

“Bo, I stayed with you because you’re you.”

She studied him skeptically for a long beat, then squirmed a bit against the fractured wall, turning to face him more fully. 

“I stayed with you because you’re not just our leader, Bo-Katan. I stayed with you because….because...” He searched for words but came up lacking. How did he tell her what he felt, when he wasn’t really sure how to describe what he felt.

She solved the problem for him. In one swift action, she grabbed the lip of his chestplate and pulled him to her, kissing him hard.

When she pushed him away, both a little breathless, he laughed. “Yes. _That’s_ exactly why I stayed.” He threaded his fingers through her silken hair and pulled her to his lips again, kissing her more tenderly than the first time. 

The second time they broke apart, they rested their foreheads together. Fenn smiled. “Stars, Bo. I’m sorry it took so long for that to happen.”

“At least it happened.”

The moment came to a brutal end as the building around them exploded into dust. The last thing Fenn felt, before darkness swept him up, was Bo-Katan’s hand clutching to his. 

* * *

  
  


Two weeks passed. But in the custody of the Empire, it felt like months. Years. Decades. They tortured him, with their droids and their needles and their shocks, but also with Bo-Katan’s screams as they tortured her in kind. He did not break. Though there wasn’t much to break for. They had Mandalore’s leader, and he didn’t know where any of the remnants had fled to. At least not the few the Empire wasn’t already aware of. 

He didn’t need to speak to Bo-Katan to know she didn’t break either. Not in that way, at least.

When he saw her again, as Stormtroopers herded him onto a platform, he knew she had cracked in other ways. Mandalore was lost. Her worst fear realized. Her unspoken promise to her dead sister broken. 

They were forced to their knees, side by side, and a hulking Mandalorian, in gleaming white and red armor, the Imperial sigil emblazoned on his shoulders, stepped up to them, pulling his helmet off, sneering down upon them.

“Saxon,” Bo-Katan snarled, feral and fierce as always. She spat at the traitor’s feet. “Betraying your people once wasn’t good enough? Maul and now the Empire?”

The man backhanded Bo-Katan across the cheek, and Fenn made to tackle him, binders be damned. But he was caught by the arms and roughly forced back down. Saxon chuckled humorlessly.

“That’s _Governor_ Saxon now, Lady Bo-Katan. I saw an opportunity and I took it,” Saxon said. 

“Just execute me and get it over with, _dar’manda,”_ Bo said. “Haven’t you dragged this out long enough? We don’t know anything _.”_

Saxon crouched down in front of her, tilting her chin up to look at him as he smiled wickedly. “Oh, you’re not to be executed, Lady Bo-Katan.”

She cocked a defiant eyebrow at him, but said nothing. 

“Do you know how many of your rebels we have captured in their attempts to free you? Hmm? You both inspire _such_ loyalty. It’s remarkable. So, no. You aren’t being executed. You are exceptional bait. They will just keep coming for you, and we will just continue to scoop more and more of your damn loyalists up, squashing your uprising.”

Fenn shook his head, confused. “So, in usual Imperial inefficiency, you’re just going to keep us alive, indefinitely? Seems a waste of resources.”

Saxon stood, pacing the floor in front of where they kneeled. “There are more efficient ways to store bait, my friends. Frozen, comes to mind.” He gestured at the machinery around them, and it dawned on Fenn what was about to happen.

“You wouldn’t dare.”

Saxon shrugged. “Why not? It works well for the bounty hunters we employ. I just cut out the middle man.” He looked up at the Stormtroopers. “But them in.”

They were dragged to their feet and shoved toward the carbon-freezing chamber. Bo-Katan snapped then, and fought, butting her head into one Stormtrooper’s helmet, smashing another’s instep under her heel. She was wild, angry, and would not go down without a fight. It did no good, though, and two new troopers wrestled her into a port, Fenn in one beside her. 

She looked at him, her eyes frantic. 

“ _Ni ceta,_ Fenn,” she whispered, her voice thick with emotion.

“Don’t you dare apologize, Bo-Katan. I will always stand by you.” 

She nodded, her eyes glassy with tears. “ _Vor entye, ner vod.”_

The machinery hissed around them, but he kept his eyes locked on Bo-Katan’s, trying to keep her focused on him. “ _Gar kotep,_ Bo-Katan. _Ret’urcye mhi.”_

And the last thing Fenn Rau saw, before the cold took him was the wild, blazing green eyes of the woman he would follow to the end of the universe. The woman he thought he may actually love.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Korkie Kryze seeks out help from an old friend to find the only family he has left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So happy you all are enjoying this little fic! It's a silly premise, but I swear it will make sense in the long run. You all are the best!

Korkie Kryze stared out the viewport, eyes unseeing as the swirling blue of hyperspace raced passed. 

They'd made it out. Out of the only home he'd ever known. Out of the city full of reminders, good and bad, of the woman who had loved him and raised him and went to extraordinary lengths to keep him safe. 

He'd left Sundari behind. Left Mandalore behind. Left the only remaining family he had, a woman he'd only known a bit more than a year, behind.

He hated it. He felt sick for it.

He knew he should be grateful, for the second (third? Fourth?) chance she'd given him. Grateful that he and Lagos and Axe had been able to get more Sundari residents out, and mostly safely, save a few blaster wounds.

But all he felt was loss. 

Mandalore was lost.

His mother was lost. 

His aunt was most likely lost.

Peace, the Jedi, the galaxy. It was all lost.

A gentle hand on his shoulder pulled him out of his thoughts. He looked up, Lagos looking down at him, her face stormy with concern. He tried to give her a reassuring smile, but knew it didn't work.

She handed him a mug of tea, then sat down in the copilot seat, swiveling to look at him. He turned to face her.

"How is Axe?"

She shrugged. "That man is made of tough stuff. He'll be alright."

"And everyone else?" He sipped his tea, trying to pull himself out of his dark mood.

She leaned back in her seat, relaxing for the first time in days. Weeks, possibly. "Sad. Scared. Angry as hell. Like we all are."

Korkie nodded, then emulated Lagos, trying to relax back in his seat, but he felt as if he were made of durasteel cable, placed under too much stress, at risk of snapping. 

They sat in silence for a few minutes before Lagos spoke again.

"How will we find her?"

Korkie stroked his chin as he thought. He really didn't know.

Ahsoka had reached out to Bo-Katan a few months earlier, letting her know she had survived the Jedi genocide. It was the closest Korkie had seen his aunt come to tears, from the sheer relief. He'd learned that grief only made Bo more determined and fierce. She refused to succumb to it, only used it as fuel to protect Mandalore. Protect her sister's legacy. But the relief of seeing the grainy holo of Ahsoka had nearly brought Bo to her knees, finding out that the young woman who had once helped free Mandalore (and had helped Korkie and his friends uncover a black market ring when they were all but children) had somehow  _ survived.  _ He had understood her powerful reaction at seeing the girl. They had all lost so much, he and his aunt and Ahsoka alike. Seeing each other alive was a moment of joy in otherwise dark times.

But Ahsoka had been vague, for her safety and theirs. They didn't _ have  _ an established way of making contact.

He finally sighed. "I don't know. But we'll figure it out. I'm sure of it."

She looked at him skeptically, but nodded, accepting the eerie optimism he always seemed to have. She was used to it by now. She stood, leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. "Alright. I believe you." She went to move out of the cockpit, but stopped at the hatch. "Don't stay up here too long, love. You need to rest, eat. Take advantage of being in hyperspace for awhile."

He smiled at her. "I'll come back in a few minutes."

She nodded and left. Korkie turned back to the viewport, his mind now on how to find a ghost who didn't want to be found. 

At least, he thought with a humorless chuckle, he wasn't wallowing in grief. For now.

* * *

  
  


Two months. It took two months to track down Ahsoka Tano. 

She hugged him when he disembarked their  _ Kom’rk  _ on the out of the way moon, deep in the Outer Rim _ ,  _ and warmly greeted Lagos, Axe, and the others that had continued to travel with Korkie.

“She’s still alive, Korkie. She and a fellow Mandalorian, Fenn Rau,” she told him after they’d settled at a table in the back corner of a tiny pub. Ahsoka had clearly been busy in the few days between making comm contact with her and meeting her in person.

Korkie’s heart leapt into his throat. “Where is she, then?”

Ahsoka’s face clouded with grief. “She’s a prisoner of the Empire. They both are.”

“ _ Dank ferrick _ ,” Lagos hissed into her mug.

“Korkie, you have to understand, the Empire doesn’t typically list their prisoners by name. Every sentient being in their prison system is reduced to a number.” She paused, studying him closely before continuing. “They  _ want  _ you to know they have her. Korkie, it’s a trap.”

Korkie shoved his hair out of his face. He needed to let Lagos cut it for him. He took a steadying breath, trying to remember the breathing exercises and little calming meditations his mother had taught him. Ahsoka sat and watched him, eternally patient and calm. When he felt like he had some modicum of control, he spoke.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s a trap. I have to get her out.”

Ahoska sighed, her eyes fell to her gauntlets for a moment. Beskar. A gift from Bo-Katan, Korkie knew. “They want you to come for her. They are using her as bait. Don’t you see? They’ve already moved her three times. They’ll lure you in, only to pull her out from under you and capture you, too. What better way to subjugate Mandalorians than to capture every remaining member of the ruling house?”

“She’s right,” Axe grumbled. “Saxon has something up his sleeve.”

“What I don't understand,” Lagos said, staring into the bottom of her mug, “is why Bo-Katan hasn’t tried to make a break for it. Especially if they’re moving her. Especially if Rau is with her. Those two are slippery, especially when together.”

Korkie and Axe snorted little laughs. Ahsoka smiled in that ethereal way of hers. “I’ve wondered that myself,” she agreed. “I have some theories, but I need to do some more digging.”

“What are your theories?” Korkie asked.

She shrugged. “I just keep thinking back to the war, when I was still with my master. One time, we used carbon freezing to break into the Citadel, along with Master Kenobi.” Her eyes flashed to him for an instant, and he wondered if he didn’t need to tell her what Bo insisted he tell Ahsoka. She crossed her arms, leaning back in her chair, and looked up at the ceiling. “But, I really don’t know. That’s not really how the Imperials seem to work.”

“You think they  _ froze  _ them? Like a couple of common bounties?” Lagos asked, incredulous.

Ahsoka shrugged again. “Like I said, that’s not usually how they work. But, you said it yourself. Bo would have already made a break for it.”

They all stared at each other, the heavy realization settling down around them all. This would be far harder than they could have anticipated.

Axe waved at the server droid, and a few moments later, a bottle of something clear and wickedly strong, along with four shot glasses, was set down on their table. They all drank, even Ahsoka, and pondered in silence.

* * *

“It’s been eleven years, Korkie.”

Another backwater moon. Another table. This time his own, in the tiny house he and Lagos called home...when they weren’t running around the galaxy, undermining the Empire that stole their home from them.

Ahsoka sat across from him, bouncing his eldest on her knee while mesmerizing her by floating toys just out of her reach.

“I know, Ahsoka. I….I just can’t give up on her. My mother….my mother never did. So I can’t either.”

She nodded solemnly. “Your father wasn’t one for giving up, either.”

He frowned, fighting back the wave of jealousy that still sometimes swept him up. Ahsoka had gotten time with his father. He’d never even met the man. 

“I’m not saying we need to give up, though,” Ahsoka went on. “But people have died trying to get to her. You and Lagos both have come close to being caught. I don’t know.” She ran a hand through Mirja’s white blonde hair. “All I’m saying, I think, is you and Lagos have a lot more at stake these days. Inquisitors will get wind of both of these kids sooner or later. You need to be around to keep them safe.”

As if on cue, Beten cried from his bassinet. Korkie pushed away from the table and picked his son up, cradling him in his arms as he sat back down across from Ahsoka. She watched him quietly as she curled a tendril of Mirja’s hair around her finger. “You’re still going to try, aren’t you?” she finally said.

He snorted an undignified laugh. “I can’t not, Ahsoka. She’s our leader. We’re falling apart, especially now that Clan Wren has sided with the Empire. Mandalore needs her if we’re to take our home back.” He paused, staring down at Beten’s chubby little face as he offered him a bottle. “But not only that, she’s family. As long as we think she’s alive, I will keep trying.”

To his surprise, she smiled. “Good. I’ll see what new information I can dig up on her. I have a few new contacts. They may be able to find out more. Or at least something different.” She rose, resting Mirja on her hip, heading toward the sunny little yard behind the cottage. She paused. “Just promise you’ll stay alive for these two, ok?”

“I didn’t get a life with both my parents. Lagos lost both hers, too. We have no intentions of dying. There are reasons we choose aid missions, rather than strikes.” He shrugged. “Well, except when it comes to Bo.”

She smiled again, this time, though, it was sad. “I’m glad to hear it.”

It was later, as they sat in the yard with both the children, when Lagos came home, looking far more delighted than she ever had after a mission for the infant rebellion.

She kissed Korkie soundly, uncaring of their company, then sprawled in the grass, resting her head on his knee. “A squadron of  _ Kom’rks  _ took out a light cruiser in the Taris system,” she explained breathlessly. “There was something else about a fuel station. It didn’t specify ship types, but the method sounded Mandalorian. I just picked up the chatter as I came out of hyperspace. The Imps are furious, but are covering it up. Mandalorians are starting to be a real headache again.”

Ahsoka’s brow markings nearly met her headband in surprise. “That’s….impressive.”

“And Axe sent a message. They have plans for another attack.” She tipped her head back, grinning up at Korkie. “Love, I think we have a chance, a real chance, to get Mandalore back.” Then she furrowed her brow. “But….”

“But we need Bo-Katan,” he finished the thought for her.

Ahsoka sighed, then nodded. “You need Bo-Katan.”

**Author's Note:**

> Mando'a lesson of the day:  
> Haar'chak- Damnit!  
> Beskar'gam- armor  
> Jate- good  
> Ad'ika- little one  
> Tihaar- Mandalorian liquor  
> Dar'manda- a state of not being Mandalorian - not an outsider, but one who has lost his heritage, and so his identity and his soul - regarded with absolute dread by most traditionally-minded Mando'ade.  
> Ni ceta- I'm sorry.  
> Vor entye, ner vod- Thank you, my friend.  
> Gar kotep- You are brave.  
> Ret’urcye mhi- Goodbye. Literally "maybe we'll meet again."


End file.
